An open letter to the admins of Diana's Facebook page
I posted the following on Diana Gabaldon's Facebook page this morning, and also put a copy of it on Compuserve where Diana will see it.
Maybe this won't make any difference. But I hope it will. And I posted it because the people who are not interested in movie-casting deserve to have their opinions heard, too, even if they are (vastly) outnumbered.
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE ADMINS OF DIANA GABALDON'S FACEBOOK PAGE:
1) Many of Diana Gabaldon's fans have little or no interest in the Endless Movie-Casting Debate. The "casting calls" have been going on for six weeks now. Are they EVER going to stop?
2) While the "casting calls" are going on, it's almost impossible for people who visit that page to talk about anything else. Any attempts to discuss topics related to the books (other than movie-casting) get drowned almost instantly in the flood of movie-casting comments. (I and others have tried, repeatedly, with little success, to introduce new topics for discussion.) This only adds to the frustration of fans who want to talk about THE BOOKS and THE CHARACTERS, rather than movie-casting.
3) Diana's Facebook page used to be a place where fans could come together to discuss the books, to ask questions, and to leave comments for Diana. (And occasionally to get answers directly from Diana, which is a thrill for many fans.) In the last six weeks, since the admins have turned it into "All Movie-Casting All The Time", the page seems less and less welcoming to fans who want to discuss anything else. That's really a shame, and I'm certainly not the only one who feels that way!
4) There are other ways of generating interest in the page and discussion among Diana's fans. What about posting a "Question of the Week (or Month)", on some topic of general interest? For example:
- How did you find the series?
- What's the most interesting, amusing, or unusual experience you've had as a result of reading the books?
- What are some of your favorite scenes?
- How many times have you read the books?
- Have you tried to get other people to read the books?
- What do you like best about the OUTLANDER fan community?
- Which book is your favorite, and why?
- Which of the cliffhangers in ECHO would you like to see resolved first?
- Do you read excerpts/#DailyLines or not, and if not, why not?
We hope the admins recognize that many of Diana's fans are interested in topics other than movie-casting, and we sincerely hope that the "casting calls" will come to an end in the near future!
Thank you.
Maybe this won't make any difference. But I hope it will. And I posted it because the people who are not interested in movie-casting deserve to have their opinions heard, too, even if they are (vastly) outnumbered.
but i can see where it's annoying to other fans, because ALOT of people comment about it on diana's FB wall, and not the status update... but shouldn't that be more of an open letter to fans to follow the "rules" and not the administrators?
maybe it's just me though! :)
Karen
-Shelley
I mostly look at the top ten and vote for one but that's it.
I read the daily lines but they appear on my front page, so I don't have to wade through all the casting comments.
Julia
I would like to see everyone post their Top Ten Things to do while waiting on MOBY so that people will quit bugging DG about when it will be finished. Seriously!
Karen
Thanks so much to you and the others who went out of your way to stick up for me on FB today! I won't forget that, believe me! :-)
I hope my comments helped. Diana promised she would pass them on "enthusiastically" (her word, not mine) to the admins. Keep your fingers crossed!
Karen
I totally agree with you and I'm not even on Facebook! It was a great and fun idea at first but there are just pages and pages of the same thing now and to be honest most of the choices are either repeated a hundred times or so "odd" that they are bordering on crazy!
To be quite frank it's boring now and this is coming from someone who has a blog dedicated to casting!
Louise
I LOVE your ideas here! A weekly discussion topic would be awesome (any of the things you suggested!) Everyone could still participate & generate interest in the page without all of the..."look at this shirtless man...no, look at this one." etc...which was fun for a while (a very little while), but enough's enough.
My contribution to your idea-
Favorite character quotes. Do claire one week, jamie the next, etc.
or for favorite scenes (like you said)- break it down by type, romantic, funny, etc.
They could still take votes if they wanted. & then have THE OFFICIAL FAN CHOSEN JAMIE QUOTE,(romantic scene, funny line,etc).
Anyways, I agree completely & just wanted to chip in my ideas.
Thanks for sticking your neck out for us! We appreciate all you do!
That being said, I certainly appreciate you saying something about it. I don't usually go to DG's facebook page, but can imagine how frustrating it must be to try to and talk about the books there.
It would be lovely to get back to basics. Thank you for all you do Karen you are a marvel!
Kind regards
Janet in OZ